The impact of this game is unmeasurable. Before I knew what Touhou even was, I already had listened to most of this game’s music. Eventually I figured out what it was, and became interested in the series. I always wanted to try them out, which I did. I played Lunar Nights and adored it. I then played Ultimate Vitality of Imagination (A Touhou game I see literally no one talk about, but it is criminally underrated.) And now, I finally got around to playing a mainline entry, and there was no better place to start than Embodiment of a Scarlet Devil. Did it live up to all the hype? After playing it... yeah, no shit it does.

I mean, this is THE Touhou game. Almost all the characters introduced here and the music are iconic. Of course, this game is fantastic.

Touhou Embodiment of a Scarlet Devil follows Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden, attempting to figure out who is behind the weird mist in the air. So she travels around trying to find the culprit, who they discover is living in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The story barely matters, if I am being honest. It’s cool that it’s there though.

The game is separated into 6 stages, 5 if you’re playing on easy. In each stage, you survive an endless barrage of bullets being shot at you by enemies and bosses. You start with 3 HP and 3 bombs you can use to clear out the screen if you’re in a situation where you’re about to get hit or want to skip past a tough section of the stage. You also have the opportunity to increase your character’s power by collecting red Power items. Power is really useful since it lets you do more damage, which in turn, means you'll spend less time on a tough attack. There are also blue point items that increase your score when they’re collected. Depending on your score, you get HP bonuses so even if you’re not aiming for a high score, you should try to get as many of them as you can. HP is a rare and limited resource and I’ll take any I can possibly get.

By holding shift, you can slow down, allowing you to pull off precise maneuvers to dodge attacks that get thrown at you. One thing I’m not a fan of is that at least for this game, you can’t see your hitbox when you’re slowing down. Your hitbox is a tiny little circle in the center of your player character. So you don’t get hurt if a bullet touches you, only if it touches the hitbox. This allows you to graze past bullets, and you get bonus points for doing it successfully. The problem is that you can’t see it, making it harder to dodge attacks. I got used to it since I had played another Touhou game before, so I had a rough idea of where the hitbox was, but it still felt odd that it was completely invisible. I understand why this game is known for not being accessible to newcomers because nothing in the game tells you about the small hitbox. So you’re kinda screwed if you didn’t know about it beforehand.

When it comes to the bosses, they’re all great. Each of them has unique attack patterns that are very exhilarating to survive against. It takes a lot of time and patience. You will die a lot, and the game’s still hard even on Normal, which is the difficulty setting I went with. So, if you plan to give this game a shot, expect to replay the same stages multiple times. I did not mind it since they were a blast to get through. With every attempt, I would do them slightly better. I felt like I was always improving, which made the grind less annoying. I will say that some attacks felt a bit unfair to dodge, although that might be because of the whole hitbox issue.

And of course, I can’t forget what Touhou is most known for: it’s music! I listened to the game’s soundtrack before I played through it. All of it is fantastic. My favorite track in the game is easily the extra stage theme. It makes grinding through that level not as bad as it could’ve been.

Overall despite the hitbox issue, I had a great time with Touhou 6! I’m excited to try out the other mainline games eventually. Highly recommend checking it out, just be prepared for a very challenging experience.